Toronto’s Kymco dealer ran transit ads on Toronto’s TTC system imploring riders to “Take The Kymco,” (TTK). A clever idea, too bad they flagrantly copied the TTC trademark and TTC removed the ads. Whatever your feelings about scooters’ impact on ecological, economical, and traffic impact, public transportation is surely better, but that said, public transportation riders are probably a wise target market for scooter dealers!
6 thoughts on “Take the Kymco”
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Public transportation is better? Certainly not for the environment. Most transit systems run huge inefficient buses that are largely empty. See for instance http://ti.org/antiplanner/?p=1452
Regards
Gordon
Maybe in Toronto. In Chicago the buses and trains are packed, and run on a reduced schedule during off-peak hours, and they’re (mostly) being gradually replaced by more fuel-efficient equipment. (The “El”/subway is electric, buses are being replaced with hybrids, suburban commuter trains are big honkin’ diesels but carry 120,000 people a day)
It’s one of those things where people are going to find numbers to support what they want to believe, I guess, but I refuse to believe that hundreds of thousands of commuters a day switching from PT to scooters would be a good thing.
In fact, it’s fun to ride the scooter to work once in a while, but in my case it’s actually easier, more relaxing, and often faster to take the train/bus, not to mention much safer. It’s probably cheaper, too, certainly so if you have to pay for parking. I can read or play games on my phone instead of trying to figure out which car is going to try to kill me next.
In Cincinnati the bus is either over filled (people packed in standing up) or nearly empty, depending on the time of day.
I prefer riding the scooter and watching for the car with murder in it’s headlights.
Seattle has the worst public transportation of any major city in the U.S. It takes over an hour to go more than a mile or two anywhere, and having to transfer can mean standing around for as long as an hour waiting for your connecting bus. The bus routes often turn into another route mid-trip, but it’s not consistent and consulting the printed schedule doesn’t help because the buses are always running late. Oh, yeah, there’s a streetcar (the SLUT) that goes from downtown to the Fred Hutch Cancer Research Center, and a new light rail line that goes from downtown to a mile away from Sea-Tac Airport.
While Portland’s TriMet is much better, the agency’s revenue from a head tax on employees is way down, so they’ve had to raise fares and cut service.
When I rode past bus stops in Seattle, people waiting would turn their heads in the manner of a cartoon tennis match watching me go by; I’m sure many of them thought, “maybe I should get one of those”…
I don’t think Seattle’s bus system is all that bad. I’ve spent too many hours waiting on 45th St. in the U Dist. or on Pike Downtown and generally don’t think fondly of the city in general. But my experiences with buses in Minneapolis isn’t much different. If it can be late, it will. At least in Seattle the buses could be tracked online. That was pretty sweet.
Sorry — I think Nashville’s bus service is worse. I used to use it, ’cause as a Vanderbilt employee (at the time), I could ride for free. It was slow, and painful to go just about anywhere. Connections cost the same as the regular fare (for those paying fare), and where I live (Charlotte Park), the nearest stop is 1.25 miles away. Fortunately, that nearest stop is a frequent route, with a bus rolling by every 20 minutes.
Still, a 2004 50cc Vino was faster for crossing town, every time.
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